Otsuka Pharmaceuticals Awarded Summary Judgment in Calif. Federal Abilify Action

SAN FRANCISCO — A California federal judge has awarded Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Inc. summary judgment in an Abilify action, ruling that the plaintiff failed to show that the antipsychotic drug caused her to develop an involuntary movement disorder.

In a May 18 order, Judge William H. Orrick of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California concluded that the drug’s warning label adequately warned of the risk of tardive dyskinesia and that the plaintiff’s doctor would not have changed his decision to prescribe Abilify had he been presented with a different warning.

Ina Rodman was prescribed Abilify in …